AN ADVENTURE

We had a really slow day today.  In fact, we didn't even get up until quarter to 12.  Don't even know why we slept that late.  We had the door shut, because it was very hot, and the cats want to come in and out, but they can't when we have the AC on, so Julia spent a lot of time overnight pounding on the door and crying. 

We took a short trip this afternoon down to Gramercy Park which the hoi polloi like us cannot enter.  This is where the Vanderbilts, or Astors, or somebody else really rich, built their houses after they moved uptown from Greenwich Village.  Took a little walk through Union Square, checked out a gigantic shoe store, and came home. 

We had already decided that we were going to go to a concert called Brazilian Baroque at the Brazilian Endowment Association tonight.  I looked it up on our trusty subway map, and it seemed pretty easy to get there.  But just as a backup, I did a Google map and an MTA map.  Both of them suggested it would take 45 minutes minimum to get there.  About the time we started out, it started pouring rain, and I mean pouring.  By the time we walked the three blocks to 96th to get the crosstown bus, my jeans were soaked -- as in wring them out soaked.  Of course by the time we  got over to to the 6 subway, it wasn't raining anymore. 
After we got to 52nd on the subway, we walked over to the concert venue which was across the street from the Brazilian embassy.  The room the concert was in was a basement room about the size of our living room.  The musicians wanted the AC turned off for the concert, so they turned it off and opened the door.  Zing went the tuning on the strings.  So they closed the door and turned the AC back on.

I think perhaps it should have been a clue that there was wine compliments of the band.  The band consisted of a cellist, a double bass player, a flutist, two guitarists, a violinist, and a baritone (singer).  The biggest ensemble was the baritone, the bass and the cello.  There were three pre 1700 pieces, none more than 32 measures long.   One  guitar player was really good.  The one who played the early music wasn't.  He also sang with one of his pieces.  He apologized for his Spanish.  Spanish?  This was supposed to be Brazilian.  And his singing was much worse than his Spanish anyway.  There were three composers who had modern works performed, also very short, and the composers were there.  The best one was a violinist, and his piece was really interesting and well performed.  The 8 p.m. concert didn't get started until 8:24 and was over by 8:53.  I know why they tried to liquor us up first. 
After the show we stopped at a tapas bar called Solera.  We had bravas and a tortilla and some really good rioja.  Then we went back to the subway, where John had some kind of a problem with his ticket, and once you've used it, you can't use it for another 15 or 20 minutes, so we decided to walk up to the 59th Street station, and by the time we got there we decided to walk back over past the park and get on a very crowded 1 train and came home.  And that's our exciting day.

Tomorrow is flea market day.  There are a number of cool flea markets around town tomorrow, we hope to hit more than one.  The big one is the 26th & 6th one.  Also, I think people are coming to practice tomorrow, so we have to get out butts out the door. 

In NY, they are trying to get people to quit drinking bottled water and drink NYC's fine water.  This is a picture of the moveable water fountain brought to Union Square.  The other picture is of a woman getting her hair cut by someone who looks like a homeless man, also in Union Square.

Sorry there aren't many pictures today.  The battery on the camera died.  I'm charging it up now.